South African petrochemical company Sasol said it is delaying a decision on whether to move forward with a proposed $14 billion gas-to-liquids facility outside of Lake Charles as the company saves cash in response to falling oil prices. The company first announced plans in late 2012 for the Lake Charles, La., GTL plant.

MeadWestvaco announced that its board has approved the plan to spin off the specialty chemicals business from the rest of the company. MWV’s specialty chemicals division manufactures tall oil fatty acid and distilled tall oil and other chemicals derived from pine and wood-based activated carbon. These chemicals are used in formulating metalworking fluids.

Al-Mohtesham Trading last Thursday signed an agreement to establish a SR100 (US$26.6) million lubricant plant in the city. The plant would produce 2.4 million tons of lubricants annually and will be the company's third lubricant plant in the GCC. Jazan City is located in the Jizan Province of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia which lies in the south west section of the Kingdom.

Environmental, energy and industrial services company Clean Harbors and Nuverra Environmental Solutions, Inc., a provider of full-cycle environmental solutions to energy end-markets, announced a definitive agreement has been reached whereby Clean Harbors will acquire Nuverra's subsidiary Thermo Fluids Inc. for $85 million in an all-cash transaction.

Total last week reported a fourth quarter 2014 loss of $5.7 billion, primarily due to write-downs of about $6.7 billion. Net income adjusted for inventory changes and one-offs fell 17 percent in the quarter compared with the same period in 2013, to $2.8 billion. SK Lubricants reported last week that its operating profit rose 26% to 71.4 billion Korean Won (US$65 million) in 4Q 2014 as sales surged to a record high, climbing by 8% to W799 billion.

Air compressor OEM, Sullair, announced the launch of its newly enhanced Sullube® air compressor lubricant. Polyglycol-based Sullube’s new formulation now improves lubricant life up to 10,000 hours. Additionally, a website has been launched, Sullube.com, to provide additional information and resources about Sullube and other Sullair compressor lubricants.

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• RelaDyne Acquires San Antonio-based RediFuel
• Atlas Copco Exits Mobile Crushing and Screening Business
• Petrobras Introduces Its Lubrax Feroces High Performance, Synthetic Engine Oil with Titanium Technology Specially Designed for Motorcycles